She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls

Consistently from the time I began attending UTS at age 12, my hair was never longer than a bit below chin length. During the spring I was 14, I got a really cool short haircut (it was exciting because literally people in every grade complimented me on it, and albeit UTS was small, but not that small) which I proceeded to ruin later that summer when I got it cut even shorter and more boy-like. That was a big mistake because my hairdresser made it too short on top so I always had so much hair sticking up. Luckily I grew it out that fall, but my hair continued along in a very boring, predictable pattern of fairly straight (even though I had curly hair as a little girl), not that exciting a shade of brown, and pretty short.

I moved to Berkeley with my usual chin length hair cut, and sometime during my first spring there, when I was 19 (one of my favourite numbers and ages!) I decided to grow it long. By that fall, it had already gotten fairly long. Sometimes I miss that fall, the one in which I grew my hair, met B., listened to the Strokes non-stop, and became best friends with L. While I was desperate for longer hair, she chopped her long golden hair off to above her chin. She cut hers to get at who she really was, while I grew mine in the hopes of discovering the same thing.

I knew I had made it hair wise (ah that sounds so cheesy but it's true!) when I was home in Toronto sometime during the fall of 2004. By that point I'd had long hair for over a year. I went to a bbq with some friends from high school and a girl I hadn't seen in two years asked me if I had gotten a perm. I was so happy to tell her that no, my hair naturally looked like that and my only explanation for why it hadn't looked perm-like in high school was that it was now much longer.

Later that same fall, L. and I went shopping for Halloween costumes at a few vintage stores along Telegraph in Berkeley. I decided to be Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's and so I tried on this long black evening gown. L. and I stood in the change room looking at my reflection in the mirror and she told me that looking at me she was reminded of why she'd always wanted to be a brunette. I found (and find) this a bit odd (and of course also very flattering!) because L. has the most beautiful golden honey coloured hair in the world - the type of hair colour that is coveted the world over. But it was very sweet; and partly thanks to her I began to appreciate my dark shade of brown and definitely find it much more interesting and attractive than I did in high school.

The summer after I left Berkeley, I realized my hair - halfway down my back at least - was just too long. It was really hot that summer and by August, my hair felt permanently knotted and tangled. So I cut it pretty short, and ever since then I've gone back and forth between cutting it short and letting it grow. I get it layered a bit now and so I don't think it will ever grow as long as it was in Berkeley. But that's okay - it feels like that period of my life should be the really long hair days and so I don't mind that it'll never get that length again. For now I am happy with its decently long length. I think my ideal hair style would be long with curls. (My hair inspirations: a. the picture of the red headed woman below (except I'd have bangs). I like how her curls start near the top of her head; mine start lower down. And b. the blond hair woman at the top.) L.'s (a different one than above) wedding was last weekend, [side note: she was a lovely and absolutely gorgeous bride!] and I got to have my hair done. I decided to go with my hair pulled back, half up thing with the rest of it in long curl/ringlets. I really liked it a lot, and I'm glad I picked that because I wanted my hair pulled back like that. I think though, that maybe over winter break I'll go get my hair done and ask them to do it more like either the redhead or the blond below and above, just to see how it would like.

My hair and I are both big participants in the wavy versus curly debate. Which one better describes my hair? You'd think I'd be satisfied just saying I have wavy hair, particularly since both E. and E. and my aunt (whose name also starts with E. funny!) have all gotten perms just to have wavy hair. (And by the way, all their perms look amazing! Wavy hair is awesome! except when what you really want is curly hair...) But I'm not. My hair really lives firmly on the border between wavy and curly (although once in some emails B. and I were discussing wavy v. curly hair (his hair being decidedly wavy) and he wrote: "I always thought of your hair as pretty curly, but not too curly.") - some days it is so curly and some days so wavy and some days a mix of both. My favourite part about my hair now - and my strongest evidence that my hair is really curly, and not wavy - are the ringlets I frequently (although, much to my chagrin, not everyday) get. I even took a picture last Thursday specifically to post here and show what they look like, so look at it below. I have no idea why they are sometimes there and sometimes aren't, but I do wish I had them everyday. However in any event, I am just glad I have (sometimes) curly hair, and that I like my hair so much more than I did when I was a teenager.

In closing, here are the best ways (in my opinion) to make your hair curlier (provided your hair is either semi-curly or wavy to begin with): 1. go swimming the ocean and then let it dry without washing it first. This is guaranteed to give you lovely (in appearance, although your hair will feel very dry) salt water curls. 2. Use Rosemary Mint Aveda shampoo. I have tried so many different curly hair shampoos (Sunsilk, Herbal Essences, and even Aveda's Be Curly) and none of them have made my hair curlier than Aveda's Rosemary Mint. I first used it this summer because it was the shampoo in A. and L.'s guest bathroom in LA and I quickly fell in love because it made my hair so curly. However, the downside is that it is pretty expensive, so I've only bought it once since then. But I need to buy it again because it really does give me great curls. In fact, I think I'll go buy some this weekend.